Apple is leaning further into live sports, this time on your iPhone.
The company has introduced Apple Sports, a new app that will deliver real-time scores and stats to your phone, including (if you wish) the lock screen, meaning you can always be up to date on the teams you care about.
Available now in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, the app currently displays scores from Major League Soccer, the NBA, NCAA basketball, the NHL, and six other leagues that are now in season. Once other leagues, including the NFL and Major League Baseball, begin playing, data will be available for those as well.
“We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want—an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, in a statement. “Apple Sports…makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues.”
The app itself is fairly bare-bones, seemingly by design. Users are asked to pick the leagues they’re interested in and, should they wish, their favorite teams. Once that’s done, the app will show scores from the previous day as well as upcoming games.
Clicking through to individual games will show you line scores, statistics, and betting odds on the two teams. (Users have the ability to turn off the betting information.)
Users can also tap the screen to go to the Apple TV app to watch live games, a push that the company certainly hopes will boost subscriptions to Apple TV+. (The app will also steer you to other connected streaming apps.) To get data on the lock screen, iPhone owners will have to activate the live activities box.
Apple Sports is a free download.
